Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Notes:

Your PS&R Clock May Be About To Run Out

Don't let PS&R registration delays doom your cost report.

If your fiscal year just ended in December and you haven't registered in Medicare's new Provider Statistical and Reimbursement (PS&R) System, there's no time like the present.

Background: "The PS&R is used by many in filing their cost report Medicare patient information," explains consultant Tom Boyd with Boyd & Nicholas in Rohnert Park, Calif. CMS said it was going to stop sending copies of PS&R reports to providers in 2009, but it pushed back that date when many providers hadn't registered in the new system.

Now the clock may finally have run out. "CMS has stated that [the reports] will not be mailed to the FYE 12/31/10 providers," Boyd tells Eli.

"Prior to accessing the PS&R system, users will first need to register for a user ID and password in CMS' Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Systems (IACS)," CMS says on its website. "IACS is the CMS identification and authentication system used to access CMS webbased applications."

"It can take a month to complete the registration process, and you don't want to be late," Boyd & Nicholas says in a Frequently Asked Questions document issued last year about the PS&R change. "A delay in your PS&R will not justify a delay in the filing of your cost report."

Need help? You can consult CMS's tip sheet for registering in IACS and the PS&R system at www.cms.gov/psrr/downloads/Registration_Tips_Providers.pdf. Medicare contractor NHIC issued in June a 27-item FAQ document about the topic at www.medicarenhic.com/providers/articles/FAQsPS&R061810.pdf. General information aboutPS&R and IACS is at www.cms.gov/psrr.

Tip: An agency employee must register in the system -- "it cannot be your CPAor consultant," Boyd & Nicholas stresses.

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